Yours, Mine, and Ours (2005)

I really disliked this movie. Not only does the movie run on the stereotypical plot and themes of countless movies that have come before it... but it's based on a movie that was actually very good. I suppose I wouldn't mind this version so very much if I hadn't seen the Lucille Ball version first, it would have been just another crude attempt at mashing together a feel-good movie about family values to get people to pay money to go see it, like a lot of the other things playing in theaters. But since I've seen and enjoyed the original, watching this actually offended me personally. I would have preferred that they take these characters and make a new movie.. not attempt to ride on the success of the original storyline. 

As for the movie itself, the mom was of course the one with the big heart and the dad a heartless dictator, stereotypical gender roles ftw. The mom of course had to adopt a kid from every visually different racial category so that all races were represented... while making them play out their 'racial role', one Asian boy was an effeminate designer, the other tech savy, the indian kids went barefoot and liked gardening, the black kid was 'gangsta' and made a rap song for them all at one point, and of course all the white kids were the focus of the story and required no racial marker because they're 'normal'... So they reaaaallllyyyy tried hard to create dynamic and interesting characters here, and at the same time did a most excellent job of challenging the status quo and the stereotypes that influence kids to perpetuate racist stereotypes. Not . There should be a committee or something for things like this. And of course the men made all the rules and the women had 'great personalities' and were 'strong' but did what the men said in the end. Again, great film for the kids. I'm getting a bit overly sarcastic now so I'll stop. Suffice it to say I was not impressed.

Hot Gimmick by Miki Aihara

This manga sickened me. Don't get me wrong, I read the whole thing and thought it had the potential to be kind of romantic, but it ended up being a story about unhealthy obsession and relationship abuse. I understand that love is a passionate affair of swirling emotions and non-nonsensical actions and what not, but there is a fine line between a healthy relationship and an unhealthy relationship, and HG is an example of the latter. Hatsumi was treated with no respect by Ryoki and was referred to, and considered a slave (which has the potential to be interesting, but was just exploitation in this instance), a dog, and a piece of luggage. She was also admittedly afraid of Ryoki throughout the entire story and because of his insistence, began believing that she was stupid and worthless. This is not love. And I understand that Ryoki's childhood was in some way deficient and may be the cause of his actions and thoughts, but its not OK just to accept that as an excuse for his behaviour. One of the cool things about stories is watching the characters develop into new people by learning some life lesson. Hatsumi did not grow, and neither did Ryoki. This was an example of an emotionally abusive (and sometimes physically abusive) relationship that was applauded by friends and family. They show movies in high school warning kids about this kind of thing because it is wrong and all people, no matter their gender, should be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve as a human being. I shudder to think that this is socially acceptable and hope that no young girl gets a hold of it.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

I read this book because I work in a bookstore. I read the previous ones and found that with each instalment it just kept getting worse, and as this series appears to be somewhat popular people ask me what I think of it... and I just don't feel comfortable speaking poorly something I know nothing about :P This said, after reading the third book I expected to give this a disgustingly low rating, but instead it just made me look at the series in a new light. I've written reviews on the other books, so for my own sake I won't go into detail about what I think the series lacks, I'll just sum it up with saying that the author just isn't too good at what she does. The story of twilight is pretty standard when it comes to vampire romances, so the formula has been proven to work, but the author lacks the skill to develop characters and relies heavily on plot throughout the series, which can work, but she sets up the story in a character driven setting, so that doesn't really work. Also, I feel as though a teenager is writing this. The logic, the manner in which the characters speak and the way in which the narrator presents the information... some reviewer somewhere said it reminded them of a fan fiction, which is a very appropriate label now that I think about it. So that also got under my skin a bit.
 
Taking these kinds of things into consideration, I re-labelled this book in the series as a book you would find in the romance section of the book store, without the emotional catharsis of sex (then again it is very pg and the characters don't really show much desire for each other beyond saying how much they love each other... so words only). Basically a soap opera for kids. And I suppose in my mind the first books were trying to be received as something more than that, which is why I think I was so disappointed. So ya, but not like the Jane Austen kind of romance, more the Nora Roberts or Christine Feehan, the ones where you roll your eyes constantly, but enjoy it because you know it isn't supposed to tickle your intellect in any way. That said, this isn't a negative category to fall under, but I don't think that's where this author would want these books to be.
 
On to the book itself (yes I actually plan on talking about the book at some point during this long and pointless tirade). As I had the lowest possible expectations going into it, it wasn't that bad (thinking about it as a romance also helped). The characters seemed a bit two dimensional emotionally and there was quite a bit of filler that could have been left out as it didn't develop either plot or characters, but just kind of existed.
 
Teenage marriage and pregnancy were definitely taken very lightly and were almost promoted, but as I stopped taking it seriously by this point I wasn't very concerned about it. The author also promotes her morality more noticeably than in the other books, but this isn't really something to be concerned about I don't think. The issue with Jacob and the baby seemed to be one of the things that turns people off a lot in this book, besides the fact that it was designed to be somewhat convenient for the plot and for modern morality, pedophilia and what not. I think the author just handled this awkwardly. She wanted Jacob out of the way, but wanted everyone to have a disney ending, but wasn't too comfortable with the subject matter I don't think. (On a side note, a series that handled a romantic connection like what Jacob and the baby had effectively is the black jewels trilogy by anne bishop. That one was decently done).
 
So... if you read the series I would read this book as well, it won't be stellar, but it's better than what the last one left you with ... I wouldn't buy it though.

Tinkerbell (2008)

First off, this movie had the potential to be interesting and magical and exciting. The elements for what could have made this movie great were there somewhere, they just weren't touched upon. This turned out to be a movie about 'everyone's an individual, just like you' and near the end when I discovered that this was the only moral I felt really disappointed. It's just one of those movies that will leave no mark on you, washboard quality. If you've ever seen the sequel to snow white, the cartoon version, I forget what it's called because yes it was just that bad, it is reminiscent of that.

Now this would all have been fine and dandy if it was just another movie to sucker people out of 30 bucks or however much it costs... but it is a story about Tinkerbell... from peter pan. It almost seriously offended me that anyone would stray so far from a wonderful, classic story like that and steal one of it's signature characters and turn it into this. Such a bastardization of arguably one of the most memorable characters in children's classical literature... some one should be slapped, really hard. It offended me enough to go out and write this review, which probably isn't even that articulate because my mind is still boggled by the fact that these greedy, money sucking... people at Disney wouldn't just create some other nameless character, not drag a classic one through the dirt. .. Of course I doubt anyone would buy that nameless character because of late their story writing ability is far from decent... as this little jem proves.

There are other fairy stories out there, don't support this one.